Director Technology Solutions - Azure Cloud

About the Role

The Director Technology Solutions for Azure Cloud serves as the senior leader responsible for the overall technical direction, growth, and operational health of the Azure cloud practice within the organization. This role bridges hands-on technical expertise with strategic leadership to ensure excellence across architecture decisions, people development, delivery governance, and business enablement.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the principal technical authority in the Azure practice, overseeing all architecture decisions.
• Review and advise on solutions developed by Azure Architects and Senior Architects.
• Address and resolve high-level technical issues arising from Azure project engagements.
• Establish and enforce technical standards, best practices, and governance protocols for all Azure projects.
• Promote consistent adoption of cloud-native and well-architected frameworks throughout the practice.
• Identify skill gaps and implement targeted upskilling and certification initiatives focused on Azure expertise.
• Define clear career development pathways and cultivate a high-performing, continuous learning culture within the team.
• Ensure adherence to defined technical quality standards and architectural principles across all Azure projects.
• Develop and execute a strategic roadmap for the Azure practice, including expanding capabilities and technology focus areas.
• Create reusable assets such as reference architectures, accelerators, templates, and operational runbooks.
• Lead and support responses to RFPs and RFIs, actively participating in client discussions as the Azure subject matter expert.
• Identify and facilitate upselling and cross-selling opportunities in existing client accounts.
• Represent the Azure practice at leadership meetings and governance forums.
• Report on key health metrics of the Azure practice including resource utilization, certification status, project quality, and team bench strength to the Cloud & DevOps leadership.
• Monitor trends in the Azure ecosystem and proactively integrate emerging services and technologies into the practice.

Candidate Requirements

• 22 to 26 years of comprehensive IT experience with deep expertise in Azure cloud architecture and practice leadership.
• Proven track record of establishing or managing an Azure Cloud Practice or Center of Excellence within a consulting or service environment.
• Strong practical knowledge of Microsoft Azure services, including networking, identity and security management, infrastructure services, Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines, and container orchestration.
• Expertise in networking technologies such as Virtual Networks (VNet), Network Security Groups (NSG), Azure Firewall, and ExpressRoute.
• In-depth understanding of identity and security frameworks including Azure Active Directory (AD), Key Vault, Microsoft Defender, Sentinel, and Azure Policy enforcement.
• Extensive experience with infrastructure models including IaaS, PaaS, Azure Landing Zones, and hybrid cloud architectures.
• Hands-on proficiency with IaC tools like Terraform, Bicep, and ARM templates.
• Competence in designing and managing Azure DevOps pipelines and automation using PowerShell and Azure CLI.
• Advanced knowledge of container technologies such as Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Kubernetes, Helm, and GitOps workflows.
• Demonstrated leadership in mentoring and managing large, multi-disciplinary teams spanning various seniority levels.
• Successful participation in pre-sales processes including responding to RFPs, preparing technical proposals, leading client workshops, and delivering executive presentations.
• Strong background in application modernization initiatives including legacy application assessment, replatforming, containerization, microservices architecture, and API-first strategies on Azure.
• Capability to formulate technical standards, governance structures, and oversee architectural review processes.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to confidently interact with CXO-level executives.

Preferred Qualifications

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) certification is highly desirable.
• Additional certifications such as TOGAF, ITIL, or Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) are advantageous.
• Experience working with multi-cloud or hybrid cloud environments, including Azure Arc, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
• Recognition as a Microsoft MVP or active participation in the Azure community is a plus.
• Thought leadership demonstrated through blogging, conference speaking engagements, or contributions to open source projects.
• Familiarity with FinOps practices and Azure cost management strategies.